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Well, I sent in Master Of Kung Fu as my choice, to Tom
(part of my e-mail:)

The series that immediately came to mind, the long running storyline that to me, symbolizes what comics were like during that decade, was Shang Chi: Master Of Kung Fu #42-43, #45-50.

A story driven by prose and artwork that moved it apart from most all other normal over the counter comic. It’s story had a beginning, middle and end and the title could have easily ended after the climax without anyone needing to read or see more. It followed the age old father vs. son dynamic and included a cast of supporting characters that faced their demons and often paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Email interviews DO suck, and it’s why I hate to do them. Coming up with a list of ten items that end in question marks is boring as sin, but being able to actually have a conversation with someone really brings things out. I interviewed Raina Telgemeier in person at C2E2 and in the 10 minutes of her time that it took, we had a wonderful conversation. Filling out a questionnaire in an email just can never have the same effect.

I cringed a little when I clicked on that Scott Pilgrim movie link, but yes, that should be the last word, as it is a fantastic article. SP is up to $20.7 million in its first 10 days. Its percentage drop was about the same as Kick-Ass, which if that holds, will hopefully mean it can come in around $40 million domestic when all is said and done.

I read that Scott Pilgrim piece over the weekend. I feel like I’m staring into the sun every time people talk optimistically about the Pilgrim movie. It definitively failed. There’s no two ways around it. It’s looking at earning around $30 mil for its US run and its overseas hopes aren’t high. It was a great attempt at a homerun, but it didn’t connect. It happens. As a result, Edgar Wright will have a harder time getting a major studio to invest in him again and we’ll probably see less movies based on outside the box comics. That’s absolutely a shame, but it’s reality.

Well, the difference there is, Scott Pilgrim was an enjoyable movie while Jonah Hex was a lousy one. And it didn’t matter if Jonah Hex was based on a comic book, a novel, an old TV show or a jaunty tune, it was still a horribly written and poorly acted movie! (and yes, I did see both films)

“As a result, Edgar Wright will have a harder time getting a major studio to invest in him again…”

Funny, but I saw a brief interview with Wright in the last week where he mentioned that the proposed Ant-Man movie was still a go. And the usual hand-wringing article on Scott Pilgrim fails to note Universal’s poor U.S. box office performance for nearly all of its slate of movies this year. Their latest casualty this past weekend was the highly-rated Nanny McPhee sequel, which performed even worse than Pilgrim. Again, it wasn’t the film’s fault that the studio didn’t know how to promote it.

I have no insight into why Scott Pilgrim has not done well in the box office.

I CAN say that sales on the graphic novels (here, at least) are much, MUCH better than they were on say, Watchmen, the week after it came out. In fact, I’ve sold more SP books in the past week than I’ve sold Watchmen in the year+ since the movie came out.